Aura Sphere (はどうだん,Hadōdan?, lit. "Wave Bomb") is Lucario'sStandard Special Move, which acts similar to Mewtwo'sShadow Ball in Super Smash Bros. Melee. The attack consists of Lucario concentrating Aura energy into a spherical shape in its paws, and then releasing it. It can be charged, and while doing so, any other fighter who touches the sphere takes a small amount of damage.

Contents

Overview

Lucario can also continue to hold the sphere after it's fully charged, allowing it to take advantage of its damage dealing ability, or store it for later use (which is done by moving to the left/right, by shielding, or grabbing). The sphere charges relatively fast, taking about half the time to fully charge as Samus' Charge Shot would. It takes about 1.5 seconds for the sphere to charge. It can be used as a stage controller, powerful edgeguarding option, and a spammable projectile when uncharged. The Aura Sphere hitbox while charging is a great way to refresh Lucario's moveset. It is also a high shield-pressure method and will quickly break an opponent's shield. The reason that it quickly breaks shield is the amazing speed behind the multiple hits of the charge which quickly wears away at the opponent's shield.

When fully charged, Aura Sphere travels in a straight line, but when fired without charging, it flies in an up-and-down wave motion similar to the path of Mewtwo's Shadow Ball from Melee. Due to Lucario's rather floaty aerial maneuverability, it is possible to constantly fire Aura Spheres while approaching foes from the air. A fully charged Aura Sphere's damage output changes dramatically as Lucario takes damage, starting out as low as 13% damage, up to and above 30% damage, all depending on the amount of damage Lucario has taken before attacking with it. In addition, Aura Sphere's size, when fully charged, is quite different at higher percentages, possibly amounting to be three times as large when Lucario has taken heavy damage as opposed to when it is at 0%.

On Shadow Moses Island, the sphere's ability to attack while charging proves useful as a pillar destroyer. However, it makes Lucario's current position more vulnerable.

Origin

The attack can be considered Lucario's signature attack, and is featured prominently in the movie Lucario and the Mystery of Mew as the prime example of Lucario's ability to manipulate Aura. In the Pokémon games, Aura Sphere can be learned only by exceptional "Legendary" Pokémon, as well as Lucario, Togekiss, Mienfoo, and Mienshao. It is a powerful special Fighting-type attack with 20 PP and clocked at 90 Base Power (though this has been reduced to 80 as of Gen VI) with infinite accuracy; it can only miss when the opponent is not on the field through using abilities similar to Dig or Fly. Furthermore, it can strike non-adjacent opponents in triple battles. Lucario is one of the few Fighting-types that learns it, which increases its power further.

Those with the Generation VI-originated ability Mega Launcher can boost the performance of all Pulse and Aura moves by 50%, but Aura Sphere is also rendered useless against another Gen. VI ability, Bulletproof, which protects a Pokemon from moves that originally have "bomb" or "ball" in their names, no matter if it is in katakana or hiragana.

Reverse Aura Sphere

It is known that the direction of every character's Standard Special Move can be reversed by tapping the control stick in the opposite direction immediately before or immediately after pressing the B button (the exception being Sonic and his Homing Attack).

Lucario and Aura Sphere stand out from others in regard to this technique, however. When performed with a directional jump, Lucario will not only turn around but also, with correct timing, his jump animation will reverse itself entirely, essentially bringing Lucario back to the origin of the jump.

Coupled with the fact that Lucario's Aura Sphere generates a hitbox while charging, can be stored, and (if not fully charged) is a non-obligatory attack on on ground and in midair (charging process can be cancelled with a guard, as opposed to Link or Marth, whose charged Neutral B moves are carried out as soon as the B button is released), Lucario's reversed Aura Sphere can be incorporated into gameplay beyond something as simple as a change of direction. This video demonstrates this technique.

Trivia

If two Lucarios are close together, facing the opposite direction and use Aura Sphere to charge, enemies will get trapped between the charging Aura Spheres (and may sometimes have a "vacuum" effect). This tactic is relatively useful in 15 Minute Brawl.

Lucario has three vocal sound effects when firing an Aura Sphere, one each for weak, partial, and fully charged attacks respectively.

When Kirby uses Inhale on Lucario, Kirby's Aura Sphere does not change according to his damage like Lucario's does. It stays at a fixed value of what it would be at approximately 75% on Lucario.

If Kirby uses his Final Smash while Lucario is charging an Aura Sphere from a safe distance, it will absorb the attack, but Lucario will continue to charge with nothing there. If one gets close to Lucario no damage will be dealt since the Aura Sphere technically does not exist. He can still shoot it but nothing will happen.

If Lucario has an Aura Sphere and fires it at close range to a foe, while they are shielding, assuming it was perfect, the Aura Sphere will have no effect, but will be deflected in a certain direction depending upon where the aura sphere was originally launched in relation to the foe. This sometimes leads to the Aura Sphere being frozen in one place before disappearing normally.